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Jun29
How To Research Your Novel in the Age of Wikipedia

Ben MyersHow do you use the Internet to research your work?

I've spent the last month carefully sifting through Wikipedia entries by date--if you type in any month, day, or year in history, that magnificent research engine will give you a timeline of the news and events.

I can't tell you how invaluable that process is for reconstructing a certain time period for my novel. Wikipedia gives me research leads so I can track down the news stories, fashions, and popular culture artifacts from the time period I'm trying to reproduce.

Today, BookNinja (who is on fire today, three super-useful posts in a row) pointed out a Guardian blogger and novelist who noticed that this hyperlinked history lesson could be hurting his writing style. Do you agree with Ben Myers?

Dig it: 

"The days of laborious research to produce credible fiction are disappearing. More and more, writers simpley click a link, skim-read an article, and extract the (questionable) facts. Clearly there is an argument then that far from keeping us informed and up to date, the internet and sites such as Wikipedia are in fact making writers lazy, unconvincing and inaccurate. I hope I'm not one of them."

 

Jun29
Publishing Spotted: Meta Madness, Border Books, and Mailer Males
What if we were all just characters in somebody else's novel, dude? A post over at GalleyCat reports on two new web projects that extend novels into the real world, building websites for fictional characters from books. Check out the fake... Continue Reading
Jun28
Publishing Spotted: Memoir Master, Video Vanguard, and Murder Match
Want to write a killer personal essay? Tell stories that evoke "that squirming in my seat feeling."  That's the advice of novelist Liza Monroy. She mastered the fine art of the first-person essay (writing about it for MediaBistro, even), and... Continue Reading
How To Earn Your Web Video Journalism Merit Badge
If you want to be a working writer, then you must understand web video. Just like every newspaper has a blog nowadays, the time is coming when most media outlets will have video content to compliment text. Everybody realizes that... Continue Reading
Jun27
Publishing Spotted: Credit Crash, Review Rewards and Zombie Zoom
Ever had your credit card stolen? I got robbed a couple weekends ago and somebody took my card for a run. I wish I could be more like Jeff Barnosky and turn it into a Philip Roth-esque ride through a... Continue Reading
How To Turn Your MySpace Friends Into Art
I spend so much time exploring creative ways to build new community on the web, but today I realized that most web writers already have a community that they overlook--your friends on social networking sites.Short story writer Elizabeth Crane (who... Continue Reading
Jun26
Publishing Spotted: Computer Class, Facebook Feature, and DIY Date
Do virtual communities follow the same ugly class lines that divide real life communities? danah boyd has something for all web writers to ponder (and check out the lively discussion in the comments section): "What I lay out in this essay... Continue Reading
How To Write a Memoir in the 21st Century: Three Case Studies
What have we done to reality?In a publishing market flooded with memoirs, our relationship with fiction and non-fiction is dissolving. I say open the floodgates and let our narrators be swamped with our news, ideas, and personality quirks. If you... Continue Reading
Jun25
The Literary Theory of Die Hard
Yippee Yi Yea! I saw Die Hard for the first time as a private-detective-obsessed middle schooler. The film blew me away, but it also managed to revolutionize the action movie--better heroes, better stunts, and better characterization.  According to Wikipedia, the whole... Continue Reading
The Best Movies that Feature Poetry
I love movies. I especially love movies about writers. I really really love movies that feature my favorite writings.Stacey Harwood has written an essay-long ode to poetry in movies, complete with hyperlinks to the poets and the films. Thankfully, she... Continue Reading
Jun22
"The ending is never what it starts out to be six months later" : How To Pace Your Writing Better
Pacing and continuity drive me crazy. As I slowly revise my novel, I'll get frustrated trying to decide how much time I should spend with Minor Character #703 lost in Subplot #262.I realized that long-form script writers--the people who block... Continue Reading
The Storytelling Secret Unfolding Under Your Nose Right Now
Unless you pay attention, you are going to miss the next generation of storytelling.  Every few months I like to write Alternate-Reality Games (ARG)--the 21st century storytelling genre where readers get to play out a fictional story in the real... Continue Reading
Publishing Spotted: Quick Quiz, Translating Tips, and Needy Novels
Freelancing is tough business, and every writer has set his or her boundaries. Would you write a quiz for Seventeen? Would you write for TV Guide?I'll admit my quiz-making skills are lacking, but if you want to write quizzes that... Continue Reading
Jun21
"Everyone who gets into this business is given a chance by someone" : How To Break into the Comic Strip Writing World
Every day we casually flip past sprawling novel-like stories in our newspapers. Just like soap operas or sitcoms, we never stop to ask--Who writes these comic strip scripts that we read over breakfast?For more than 15 years, Wilson has... Continue Reading
A Death in the Comics and Other Funny Page Resources
What happens when you want to tell a story that no one has ever told before in your medium?This fall, comic strip writer Tom Batiuk will kill one of his characters in his comic strip, Funky Winkerbean. That's right, a... Continue Reading
Jun20
"Rejection Makes You and the Concept Stronger" : How To Survive Early Failures
 Woody Wilson spent a whole year meticulously crafting a brand new comic strip for syndication--pushing hard to fulfill his dreams of being a comic strip writer. Every syndicate turned him down.Too many writers give up after their first big project--novel,... Continue Reading
Publishing Spotted: Dollar Days, Teenage Twist, and Rosenbaum Roars
How much is a word worth? Eighty years ago, pulp fiction geniuses earned a penny a word. Nowadays, most web writers earn pretty much the same thing. Michael Thomas Ford is trying to change all that with his new website,... Continue Reading
How To Read Five Easy Questions Interviews
For the last year, I've featured practical interviews with every kind of scribbler: from gossip writer Corynne Steindler to traveling novelist Tony D'Souza to a video chat with pulp fiction master Paul Malmont. Despite my best intentions, some readers are justifiably... Continue Reading
Jun19
"A potential daily readership of 30 million" : How To Survive as a Newspaper Comic Strip Writer in the Internet Age
Every day at lunch, I escape the day-job cubicle through my customized comics page at The Houston Chronicle--reading all the gags, drama, and funny pictures crammed into those bitty rectangles.  I dreamed this kind of bounty as a kid--now I... Continue Reading
Publishing Spotted: Thrilling Thrillers, Looking for Likers, and Pete Presents
Thrillers of the world, unite! Led by the fearless M.J. Rose (a Five Easy Questions graduate), the International Thriller Writers collective (the ThrillerFest organizers) will soon be launching serialized audiobook thrillers for adrenaline-seeking readers. Galleycat has the scoop. The Book... Continue Reading
Jun18
"Perseverance is what pays off in syndication" : How To Become a Newspaper Comic Strip Writer
Established writers rarely mention the hard times they faced early in their careers. We don't think of William Faulkner as a night watchman or T.S. Eliot as a banker--but both writers had those jobs.The hardest part about writing is believing... Continue Reading
Jun15
Publishing Spotted: Wilson Writes, Comic Commentary, and American Audit
I have some amazing news. Next week we have an unexpected Five Easy Questions guest named Woody Wilson. Wilson has built a writing career as a journalist and a newspaper comic strip writer. That's right. You are going to meet... Continue Reading
The Great Big Top Secret Method for Becoming a Successful Freelance Writer
There are one hundred million websites (including this one) that will tell you how to escape the day-to-day grind of freelancing and move into a book writing career.Today, I read an article that revealed the only fool-proof method to break... Continue Reading
Jun14
Publishing Spotted: Work Write, Creative Comments, and Page Pace
Feel like you aren't getting anywhere with your writing career? Feel like you spend too much time at the day job?Over at the The Urban Muse, Susan Johnston is exploring how Min Jin Lee converted her legal experience into a... Continue Reading
How To Pay for an MFA in Creative Writing
"So a serious artist should seek out those MFA programs that won’t land him in debt. Are there a bunch of people reading this and saying, ‘Screw you, D’Souza, you arrogant debt-free prick?’ Maybe ... I’m grateful to those programs... Continue Reading
Jun13
Publishing Spotted: Networked Nexus, Soft Skull Sale and Naked News
In many ways, it is a beautiful time to be a writer. Over at The Millions, author Buzz Poole (check out his book blog, Madonna of the Toast) just wrote an essay-long ode to the Institute for the Future of the... Continue Reading
The Perfect Father's Day Gift for Writers
Still stuck figuring out what to buy your father for Father's Day? I have an idea that's kind of crazy, but crazy enough to work...  Papercuts just initiated a weekly series where writers list their favorite songs, beginning with short... Continue Reading
Jun12
Publishing Spotted: McSweeney's Money, Bookforum Blog, and Amis Attacks
What if a $130,000 debt sank one of the best small publishers in the business? To put it another way, what if writers like Lawrence Weschler or Stephen Dixon couldn't find a home for their unique stories? The good folks at... Continue Reading
Love Your Books
Some people believe books should be read with rubber gloves and surgical tongs. I don't--my books have scribbled notes, busted spines and creased corners. We are writers. We need to devour books when we read them. You can write your... Continue Reading
Jun11
Publishing Spotted: Freelance Fight, Stop Scribbling, and Ending Essay
Why is freelancing like prison? Jeff VanderMeer has the answer.VanderMeer was one of our first Five Easy Questions guests, and his freelancing advice still stands the test of time--get plenty of exercise to cope with the stress and isolation of... Continue Reading
The Top Five Pulp Fiction Endings That All Writers Should Read
As everybody, and I mean everybody, is talking about this morning, The Sopranos ended last night. America's most critically-acclaimed television show ended in the middle of an uneventful supper at a greasy spoon diner in New Jersey. The Washington Post... Continue Reading
Jun 8
An Angelic Chorus: The Top 30 Novels in Lance Olsen's Head, Right Now
"It is almost impossible to write a novel any better than the best novel you've read in the three-to-six months before you began your own...Thus, you must read excellent novels regularly."That's a bit of advice from Samuel R. Delany in... Continue Reading
Publishing Spotted: Journal Joy, Trailer Treat, and Mini-Memoirs
I spent five years of my post-high school life hunched in coffee shops with other writers scribbling stories in battered notebooks. Now, years later, there is a place for folks like me.Run, don't walk, over to Keri Smith's homemade journal... Continue Reading
Jun 7
"An aerial view of one's work is a perpetual education" : How To Outline Your Novel
"Kafka's writing will always make one feel a little foolish, a little tongue-tied. One will find oneself standing there in a kind of baffled wonder that will insist upon a slightly new mode of perceiving, a slightly new way of... Continue Reading
Publishing Spotted: MFA Master, Intern Inkling, and True Travels
Stalk your favorite writers! So says former MFA student and novelist Katherine Taylor commenting on a New York magazine essay about MFA programs in New York. She gives some hilarious, honest advice about going back to school for writing. Check it... Continue Reading
Jun 6
"Avoid loving your work at any cost" : How To Revise Your Novel, Mercilessly
"[His novella] is based on the odd noises emanating from the flat above him. Clumps. Scratching sounds. An almost continuous mumbling whose words the author cannot discern, no matter how diligently he concentrates. What sort of universe is happening up... Continue Reading
Publishing Spotted: Meet McCarthy, AP Applications, and Roth Reward
In the year's strangest literary twist, Oprah managed to get the reclusive Cormac McCarthy to go on her show and discuss his new novel. From the noir-inspired No Country for Old Men to the Biblical Blood Meridian, this writer has... Continue Reading
Jun 5
"Never Compromise, Never Cheat" : Three Pieces of Writing Advice for the Price of One
"When he was my age, Gregor’s favorite subject at the Gymnasium was geography. Isn’t that funny? He used to read Sven Hedin’s accounts of his voyages to the far corners of the earth. The cannibals in the South Pacific who... Continue Reading
Publishing Spotted: Review Redux, Nice Newton, and Sci-Fi Selection
The Death of the Book Review. The Rebirth of the Book Review. The Book Review Gets a New Set of Clothes and Learns How To Dance.Everybody has a theory about The Future of Book Reviews. Ed Champion weighs them all... Continue Reading
Jun 4
"Never Look for Yes Men" : How Your Writing Community Can Help You Revise
"A bit of advice is worth repeating: don't listen for praise, but for constructive criticism, the kind that you can take home and use to better your manuscript ... [because] we all want our writing affirmed, and affirmed as quickly... Continue Reading
Jun 1
Publishing Spotted: MFA Madness, Super Stat, and Community Call
Question: What's the most straightforward name for a writing website, ever?  Answer: YouDon'tNeedNoMFA.com. I love their focus on community, and they have an essay by Jim Harrison that is well worth your time if you are considering enrolling in a... Continue Reading
"A Tiny Handful of Voices" : How To Build a Writing Community
There are thousands of people in the world who like to read the same things you like to read. You need to find them. Next week, novelist Lance Olsen will stop by to discuss his new book, Anxious Pleasures. Even... Continue Reading

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